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Veterans Day events in area

By Anna Burgess, aburgess@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
11/10/2015 08:34:24 AM EST

FITCHBURG -- Wednesday marks another Veterans Day, an opportunity to honor those who served in the United States Armed Forces. Here's how communities in the region will recognize local veterans this week.

Wednesday

Ashburnham

11 a.m., Town Hall lawn: The town's Veterans Day ceremony begins. It will include remarks from the Board of Selectmen and Oakmont High School Principal David Uminski, and music by members of the Oakmont band and bagpipes played by Lt. Todd Parsons.

Fitchburg

9 a.m., Senior Center: Pancake breakfast. A pancake breakfast, free for veterans and $2 a person for others, will be hosted by the Fitchburg Lions Club to start the day.

11 a.m., Senior Center: The city's Veterans Day ceremony will begin with a presentation of colors by the Fitchburg State University ROTC, the national anthem performed by WWII veteran Charles Hauler, and an invocation by Vietnam veteran William Saladini. The Fitchburg High School band will perform, as will the International Veterans Chorus, which Veterans Commissioner Michele Marino said Fitchburg has included in its ceremony for the past two years.

"We're very excited to have them back," Marino said. "They're a big hit."

The ceremony will continue with remarks from the Board of Selectmen, Mayor Lisa Wong, state Sen. Jen Flanagan, and state Rep. Stephen DiNatale.

This year's keynote speaker is George Kincannon, a retired first sergeant who served in the Army for 23 years.

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Leominster

10:30 a.m., Monument Square: The city's Veterans Day ceremony begins at the WWI memorial with a prayer and a speech by state Rep. Dennis Rosa. It will continue inside City Hall, with the awarding of the Veteran of the Year award to David and Cindy Henderson, according to Director of Veterans' Services Richard Voutour.

Also presented will be the Helen Hill Award to Joseph Firmani Jr., "for outstanding support of veterans in the community," and ninth-grader Caroline Elias, who won this year's AmVets essay contest, will be recognized.

The ceremony will conclude with the presentation of war medals to all Vietnam veterans who enlisted from Leominster or who currently live in the city.

"We did the medals for WWI, WWII and the Korean War," Voutour said. "We should have done the Vietnam ones in 1975 but never did, so now that it's the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, we wanted to do something special."

2:30 p.m., Sunrise Assisted Living: Certificates of appreciation will be presented by Veterans' Services to Sunrise Assisted Living veteran residents.

"We wanted to pay tribute to all soldiers on Veterans Day, but as this year marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, we felt those soldiers deserved special attention," Cragin said.

Cragin will talk about the work of the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society, which was based in Fitchburg. Twining will read diary entries from soldier George A. Hitchcock, who lived in Fitchburg after the Civil War and is buried here. Carter will read a poem about the death of soldier Frederic Sibley, which was published in the Sentinel. Carter's wife, Virginia, has been researching Sibley and other soldiers from the area.

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